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Orange County launch new steps against sanctuary law
By Roxana Kopetman | Orange County Register | March 22, 2018
Orange County Supervisors Michelle Steel and Shawn Nelson.
By Roxana Kopetman | Orange County Register | March 22, 2018
Orange County Supervisors Michelle Steel and Shawn Nelson.
The anti-sanctuary movement is gaining momentum.
On Thursday, three days after Los Alamitos made national news by launching an ordinance to defy California’s so-called sanctuary law, two Orange County supervisors said they plan to introduce measures next week that range from a county resolution similar in spirit to the ordinance passed in Los Alamitos, to filing a lawsuit against the state.
On the Orange County Board of Supervisors, Shawn Nelson said he’ll ask his colleagues next week to consider either joining a U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit, which was filed against California earlier this month, or to initiate separate legal action.
Nelson pointed to two new California laws he criticized as pre-empting federal law. The one targeted by Los Alamitos, SB-54, dubbed the California Values Act, limits cooperation between local and state officials with federal immigration authorities. The second, AB-103, gives California authority to inspect federal detention facilities. Orange County is home to two jails that house people on immigration detention: Theo Lacey and James A. Musick.
Orange County is “uniquely affected” by those laws, Nelson said Thursday.
“It is completely improper for the state to demand for law enforcement to not work with authorities who have jurisdiction on this issue,” said Nelson.
The California Value Act includes provisions that limit who can be detained, questioned or investigated at the request of federal immigration agents. Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens has voiced strong opposition to it.
Nelson said he took a look at the federal lawsuit by U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and introduced his proposal after fellow Supervisor Michelle Steel added a proposed resolution to the board’s agenda.
Steel’s resolution states that “it is impossible to honor our oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States” and be simultaneously in compliance with California laws.
Leaders in Yorba Linda also voted this week to send a supporting amicus brief.
“It’s kind of a little unusual that we would do that kind of thing,” Yorba Linda Mayor Gene Hernandez said at his council meeting on Tuesday. But he described the move as “necessary,” because the state’s new laws have “gone so far afield; (there’s) a total disdain for (federal) law.”
Other Orange County cities where officials are considering taking some action to express their displeasure with Sacramento’s liberal stance on illegal immigration include Buena Park, Huntington Beach, Aliso Viejo and Fountain Valley.
https://www.ocregister.com/2018/03/22/o-c-and-cities-launch-new-steps-against-sanctuary-law/